Think of the cell as operating system, and engineers taking the place of traditional biologists in retooling stripped down components of cells (bio-bricks) in much the vein as in the late 70s when electrical engineers were working their way to the first personal computer by assembling circuit boards, hard drives, monitors, etc. It's not an accident that the phrase "bio-hackers" is in the conversation, as this new crowd has a lot in common with the computer engineers who were around the homebrew computer club of the '70s leading the development of the personal computer.

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What is the path from here to general fabrication? Is that creating too much power in the hands of the individual to be able to create whatever they want that is physical. (Right now they can create any software they want, pretty much, and that has risks; some people estimate up to a trillion dollars a year is lost; lost in some way due to hackers and viruses and spam and whatnot). We have been greatly empowered computationally, without much discussion in advance of whether we should or shouldn't. There's been considerably more discussion in advance about whether we should do recombinant DNA or gene therapy or genetically modified organisms.

Generally I think he's right about this. One major exception that jumps to mind is cryptography. Maybe the name Louis Freeh rings a bell?

But CALEA simply permits the FBI to maintain court-approved access to digital communications and stored data. Another technical challenge called encryption then and now threatens to make court-authorized interception orders a nullity. Robust and commercially available encryption products are proliferating and no legal means has been provided to law enforcement to deal with this problem, as was done by Parliament in the United Kingdom. Terrorists have been able to exploit this huge vulnerability in our public safety matrix.

Neither the Patriot Act nor any other likely-to-be-enacted statute even attempts to close this gap. Resolving this issue is critical to homeland security.

You'll find the above online.

You may also remember CRISIS:

In an age of explosive worldwide growth of electronic data storage and communications, many vital national interests require the effective protection of information. When used in conjunction with other approaches to information security, cryptography is a very powerful tool for protecting information. Consequently, current U.S. policy should be changed to promote and encourage the widespread use of cryptography for the protection of the information interests of individuals, businesses, government agencies, and the nation as a whole, while respecting legitimate national needs of law enforcement and intelligence for... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]